The Promise

In October 1743 a mob at Wednesbury dragged John Wesley through the streets for most of an evening. He recorded afterwards that he lost only a flap of his waistcoat and some skin from his hand, and he went on preaching. What he had, and what the people threatening him did not, was nothing they could take.

Picture the room this letter was read in. Hebrews is written to people who had already had their goods seized, who had visited friends in prison, and who were being tempted to go back to a religion that was legal and safe. They were poorer than they had been. Some of them had watched a house get taken. The writer knows this and says so three chapters earlier, that they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods.

To those people he writes: let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have. That is a hard thing to say to somebody who has just been robbed, and he knows it, so he gives the ground for it immediately, quoting God's own words: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. The Greek piles up negatives in a way English cannot carry; it is closer to I will never, no never, no not ever let you go. And the next line is the conclusion the readers are meant to draw for themselves: so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

Somebody's name still makes your stomach drop, because they left, and a quiet part of you concluded that leaving is what people eventually do.

So test the other thing you have been using for security. Pick one purchase you make to feel safe: the upgrade, the subscription, the balance you keep telling yourself is not sufficient yet. Decline it once this week, deliberately, and see whether you are still held. If there is money spare in it, send it somewhere it is needed.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 73 is Gave the Sense (Nehemiah 8:8).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna